The Back Log, vol. 22 - Thoroughly PAX-ed Out (Patreon)

But boy was it fun...

Hello Pocketeers! It's been two whole weeks since we last talked in one of these, because the whole team were very busy at a certain convention last weekend. And let me just say off the bat - what a fantastic community you all are. I'm gonna get sappy for a moment so bear with me.

Seeing so many of you at our meetup on Saturday was fulfilling for my little community manager heart in so many ways, from the way you conducted yourselves, to the camaraderie, and the general respect you all have for one another. First and foremost I have always been a member of this community, and one of the reasons I value it so much is because it has given me numerous lifelong friendships over the years. And standing in that meetup at PAX on Saturday, I saw so many of those relationships being forged or strengthened. And that's why I think this is one of the best communities on the internet (cliché, I know) - because while you were all so wonderful to us on the team, what was equally as important to me was how good you were to one another. This carried over across the weekend to every interaction I had with a Pocketeer, and genuinely some of my most special moments across the weekend came from those brief interactions scattered throughout.

Alright, I've said my piece on that (and I hope it rang true for you too). If you weren't able to make it to PAX, please let it be known that yo were deeply missed, and we hope to see you at an event in the future!

One final note on PAX before we get on with the usual things: we haven't been able to get our PAX panel VOD up onto YouTube yet but we are working on it! So if you weren't able to catch it in person or live online, we'll get that sorted for you ASAP (and hence it won't be in the breakdown below).

THIS WEEK ON BACK POCKET
(yep, it's actually two weeks again)

Back Pocket Tonight - The Aye Team Gets Festy!
Purely to be confusing as possible, we're starting with the most recent thing that happened in the past couple of weeks, our show this past Thursday! Fresh off PAX weekend, Ruby, Pete, Gus and Steph reassembled on the couch for an episode absolutely packed full of games. Not just What We've Been Playing, which this week featured Assassin's Creed Mirage, Detective Pikachu Returns, Forza Motorsport and Exhausted Man. No, we also took a look at some demos from the latest Steam Next Fest: Octopus City Blues, Jusant, While We Wait Here and Hairdresser Simulator. And we had a quick look at Sony's sexy new slim PS5 models too.

Checking Out Steam NextFest Demos! | Back Pocket Tonight 

Post Show (link to locked post)

PocketBuds: Recapping Games Week!
PocketBuds has been continuing along through all the PAX chaos (and Ruby losing her voice), and this week's episode is all focused on recapping GCAP, a game dev conference that happens yearly down here in Melbourne, with her best friend and Powerhouse Museum curator, Chloe Appleby! And that's not all the recap action that happened, with the bonus episode featuring our very own Back Pocket crew, to chat about everything PAX. And releasing last Friday (on the first day of PAX itself) was an episode where Ruby was able to interview Rich Lambert of Zenimax Online Studios on what it's like to build an MMO from the ground up, as he did with Elder Scrolls Online.

How An MMORPG Is Made ft. Rich Lambert
Spotify Apple iHeart Google Podbean

Ruby's GCAP ReCAP ft. Chloe Appleby & More
Spotify Apple iHeart Google Podbean

PocketBuds EXTRA - Everyone Is So Tired From PAX (Except For Gus) ft. The Aye Team (link to locked post)

Socials: Many, Many Clips
Seeing as it's been a busier few weeks in the Lowkii and BP world, most of our social content for the past couple of weeks has been focused around clip cuts, but let me tell you, that doesn't mean they haven't been superb - Will and Gus have been doing a stellar job on each of them! I won't go into the full list, but you can click below to watch each and every one of them...

Game Plan (pre-PAX) 

VIDEOVERSE 

Clip - Crocs & Mr Patch-It 

Game Plan (post-PAX) 

Clip - Everybody 1-2 Switch LIVE 

Clip - A Game for Children 

Podcast - The Dungeon Experience

NEXT WEEK ON BACK POCKET

Boy, it's a hectic month hey? This coming week in Sydney is SXSW, and also IEM! While the gang doesn't have anything official planned, we do have some client work that will be happening throughout the week, so you may see some of us around. Because these won't be official meetups or appearances from a BP perspective, we ask that you be respectful if you come and say hi - we'd love for you to, but if we look like we're busy with other work, then it's best to let us do our thing! So yeah - hopefully we see some of you there!

From a show perspective, we've got our all-ladies episode this week! Joining Ruby and Steph will be Gem a.k.a. GeeOfDee, and Loz of Griefed. And of course, Lady Joshua Swift.

Plus, more PocketBuds of course! This week, we have the first of our extended interviews from Games Week, featuring Knuckle Sandwich developers Andy Brophy and Olivia Haines!

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That's it! Once again, it was so great to see so many friendly faces at PAX, and I miss all of you already (we'll just have to catch up next year). And man, I didn't even mention above at all that we get a NEW Spider-Man and a NEW Mario game this week. Wowee. Video games just don't stop comin' (and they don't stop comin').

- Ben :)